John 5:31- “If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not valid. NKJV
Jesus stated that if He was to testify of Himself, His testimony would not be true! And yet, we know that if Jesus said something, it was most definitely true! However, according to Jewish Law, a person’s testimony of themselves was not valid.
So instead of arguing with them about the validity of His own testimony, Jesus tells them that He had the testimony of John the Baptist, His works, the Father, and the scriptures. So does that mean that Jesus did not testify at any point that He was the Son of God? Absolutely not! And in this blog, we will look at what Jesus had to say about Himself as the Son of God.
Not long after Jesus gives His list of witnesses, He finds Himself in another conversation where His testimony is in question, and He responds by saying:
It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me.”
John 8:17-18 NKJV
In this situation, Jesus again appeals to the Law stating the testimony of two or three witnesses establishes a thing. Therefore, His testimony, along with the testimony of the Father, validates His witness. He was referencing the Law that states:
“One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.
Deuternomy 19:15 NKJV
So in this chapter of John, we see that Jesus felt that His own witness, validated by that of the Father’s witness, was a credible source.
I’ve heard it said that Jesus never said that He was the Son of God! Of course, the people who say this either don’t read the Bible or have selective amnesia. Therefore, I would like to look at a few places where Jesus did refer to Himself as the Son of God.
Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.” Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him.
John 9:35-38 NKJV
Jesus healed the man born blind, and when the man was cast out of the synagogue for refusing to deny that Jesus had healed him, Jesus went looking for him. When Jesus found the man, He asked the man if he believed in the Son of God, revealing to the man that He was indeed the Son of God!
Do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?
John 10:36 NKJV
The Jews were ready to stone Jesus because He said He was God’s Son! They accused Him of being blasphemous! Nothing in His words could have been misconstrued as ambiguous, so He said that is the Son of God!
But if you pay close attention to Jesus, His references that He is the Son of God were not the only way of acknowledging His Sonship! Every time that Jesus referred to God as His Father, He said He was God’s Son!
“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 10:32-33 NKJV
In this verse, it is clear that Jesus is referring to the God of heaven as His Father. He tells His listeners that if they indeed acknowledge Him before others, He will most definitely acknowledge them before the Father! Why would that even be necessary, seeing that God knows everything?
I believe that today, as then, people tend to think that as long as God knows they have confessed Jesus, no one else matters! That’s as erroneous now as it was when Jesus addressed it! Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? If so, you are responsible for telling others! If you don’t acknowledge Jesus, He isn’t acknowledging you. That’s tough to think about, but those are His words, not my own!
Not only does the term, the Son of God, refers to Sonship, but Messiah and Christ also refer to Sonship. When Jesus was before the High Priest, they wanted to know if He was indeed the Christ:
And the high priest arose and said to Him, “Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?” But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!”
Matthew 26:62-63 NKJV
To the Jews, the Christ and the Son of God were indeed the same person! Jesus responded to him that it was as the high priest had said. In other words, it is true! I am the Christ, the Son of God!
When Jesus went to Bethany in response to Mary and Martha’s call because of Lazarus, it looked as if He was too late to benefit them. Martha went to Him and said that if He had been there on time, Lazarus wouldn’t have died. Let’s look back at part of their conversation:
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
John 11:25-27 NKJV
Jesus asked Martha if she believed that He was the resurrection and the life? He asked if she believed that those who believe in Him would live and never die? She responded by stating she believed that He was the Christ, the Son of God! God is never late! Nothing is dead that can’t live when He gets involved! That’s God!
And that leads us to the only scripture worthy of following a conversation like that!
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
John 3:16-18 NKJV
God’s great love for humanity brought about the plan of salvation. A salvation that was so deeply personal for Him that He sent His Son, Jesus, to redeem us! There was nothing cliché about God sending Jesus for us! Nothing is commonplace about the reality that Jesus, God Himself, loved us so much that He personally redeemed us to Himself!
I once watched a testimony of a Middle Easterner of the Muslim faith make a statement similar to this:
He said that all his life, he was told of all the things he had to do for Allah, but when he heard about Jesus and all He had done for him, it was life-changing!
If you haven’t embraced Jesus, the Son of God, in all He is, today is a great day to receive Him! You are so loved! Not just loved, but so loved by the Son of God! Now, I can rest my case, and I trust that your faith in the Son of God has been stirred! Wonderful Jesus1
Wonderful Jesus! 